Wherein I send my last baby off to Kindergarten

On Monday morning, I dropped off all three of my babies at school and went home by myself. Photos are here. I have to admit that my own nervousness at sending my youngest off to Kindergarten was probably a lot stronger than when I sent my oldest off to Kindergarten. (With my middle child, my Princess, I was more worried for her teacher than for my own child, but that's a different story...) My Tiny Man, besides being the youngest of my three offspring, is also the youngest to start school. When they started Kindergarten, Big Brother was just a few weeks away from turning 6, and the Princess was 5 1/2. The Tiny Man just turned 5, so he is younger and also much smaller than his siblings were.

As it turns out, though, I needn't have worried about him. He never expressed any apprehension about going to school. At all. He was just super excited to get to go to school like his brother and sister. I woke him up Monday morning and he jumped out of bed, ready to go! Eating breakfast and getting dressed were just necessary evils on the road to the ultimate goal... SCHOOL! YAY! His brand new backpack that lights up wasn't even as high on the excitement meter as actually going to school. He had already met his teacher, who was also his big sister's Kindergarten teacher last year, so we know her and absolutely love her, and he was looking forward to being in her class.

I noticed that when he got in line on the first day and headed off to his classroom, my Tiny Man is the shortest kid in his grade. Being fairly short myself, I can relate, and if you know SuperDad, you KNOW he can sympathize. I don't think my boy even noticed, though. I will admit that my throat got a little tight when I sent him off to get in line and he never turned to look back at me, but at the same time, I was quite proud of him and realized he was SO ready for this. He is an extremely smart little boy and learns new things very quickly, so academically, he will do well. Socially, he's only ever regularly been around his siblings, and even though his sister is only 15 months older than he is, I was a little concerned about how he would react with other kids his own age, but I didn't need to be, it would seem. After two days of school, he has already made two friends that he knows by name - both girls, incidentally.

The facts are these:
1. My Tiny Man was very ready, intellectually, to go to school
2. He was so excited and wanted to go to school
3. He has made friends already over the first two days of school
4. He comes home and talks nonstop about how much fun he has at school
5. He LOVES everything about school
6. He's never gone to day care or preschool; he's been at home with me up until this point. Last school year, it was just the two of us.

Consideration of the above-listed facts has led me to one conclusion:


I MUST BE BORING.


He needed school. I guess I'm okay with that.

(Next up... Mommy, the Human Napkin enters full-time student mode.)

Wardrobe repurpose/refashion/recycle Part 1

I've had this dress in my closet for several years and have only worn it a couple of times. There's nothing wrong with it, really, but there were several things I didn't like about it. First, the denim fabric met the flowered fabric in a very awkward position and it made me look fat.

And then there was that whole lace/rosebud thing on the neckline that didn't match the skirt fabric at all. So I put the dress in the give away pile, but the more I looked at it, the more I thought I could salvage it into something I'd actually wear.
So I got out my seam ripper, took off that lace thing, removed the sleeves, and removed all the buttons.

I pinned it back together where the buttons were and stitched it closed all the way down the front. Then I took my rotary cutter and cut the top off, right above where the top buttonhole is.

Then I ripped out the seams where these two ties were attached and stitched the seams back together, saving the ties to make straps.

I wanted to use bias tape on the armholes instead of folding them over, but the white bias tape I used initially just looked weird, so I decided to make my own bias tape from the excess denim fabric I cut off the top of the dress. Here's how I did that: I had already cut another piece of white bias tape to the right size, so I used that to measure the fabric and cut two pieces, each two inches wide...

I ironed them in half, long ways...

Then I pinned the top down to the ironing board to keep it from moving. I also drew a line with a washout marker right down the center where the fold is, just as a reference point.

Next, I folded the bottom up to the center line and ironed it flat.

Then I flipped it around and did the other side, like so...

And then, with the folded edges still folded toward the center, I folded the whole thing back on the center line and ironed it flat, then pinned it in place on the arm opening...

I stitched it down and took this photo as evidence that I am incapable of stitching a straight line, even with a good machine.

Then I made a casing for the neckline by folding the top over twice (1/4 inch the first time and then a little over 1/2 inch the second time) and stitching it down. At this point, it was just a matter of how to do the straps. I thought about just threading some ribbon (or the denim ties that I removed) through like in the pillowcase dress tutorial, but instead, I used two pieces of elastic for inside the casing and stitched the denim ties to the ends. Then I cut each denim tie at the halfway point and stitched up the ends to finish them off.

Then I tried the dress on, double knotted the ties to fit correctly, made some covered buttons with white fabric, and voila! A summer dress that I will actually wear! I didn't change anything about how the flowered fabric and denim fabric meet, but repurposing the dress this way made it so that that part of the dress hit me a lot higher than it used to, so I don't get that fat look. I love it! Can't wait to wear it somewhere!

Next project is going to be a sundress for the Princess from an adult-sized dress. And then I have another dress that I don't wear that has the same fat-look effect because of the way it's made. Both of those have zippers down the back, though, so that might be a challenge. We'll see!

My own lasagna recipe!

I finally got around to posting another recipe on the recipe blog! Click here or below to see my recipe for lasagna!

Stacey's Lasagna

CRASH!!

Middle of the night. Very, very quiet. The kind of quiet you can only get out in the country. Dead sleep. Suddenly, there was an extremely loud CRASH in the kitchen...

But earlier in the day…

We came home from the baseball game around 7:30 PM and sat down to eat dinner, at which point, we noticed one of the (open) windows in the dining room was missing a screen. I immediately looked around and checked all the usual things people steal when they break into a house. Nothing looked unaccounted for, so I started asking the kids if they knew what happened. I got two “no” answers and one very guilty look. The Tiny Man said he pushed it out before we left for the game. No one wanted to go get it just then because we were eating dinner, so we put it off. I was slightly alarmed that we had been gone for over an hour with an easily accessible window open, but we live way out in the middle of nowhere, and I figure there are better places to break into than our little flimsy run-down house with the two-foot-tall weeds, unless someone really wants to steal big piles of junk, so after a quick check, we determined that everything was fine.

After we put the kids to bed, it felt a little chilly in the house, so I went around closing windows and remembered the screen outside. I closed the window and told John I’d go get it the next day. We watched some season finales I had recorded earlier, one of them being about a serial murderer. I took an allergy pill with dinner, so by the time the shows were over, I was falling asleep. I couldn’t keep my eyes open. I was SOOOO tired... We went to bed around midnight (super late for me!) and pretty much went right to sleep. Sound asleep. Dead sleep. Medicated sleep, on my part.

The clock said 1:30 AM when we heard the crash…

My first thought was that one of the kids was up and had fallen or knocked something on top of themselves. John said later that he had just been dreaming that someone was trying to break into the house. We both jumped straight out of bed and I followed John as he went running to the living room. He said his first instinct was to try and scare off the intruder, so he yelled and smacked the wall, open-handed, before leaving the bedroom. Instinctively, I knew his intention was to scare off an intruder, so I immediately became all scared, thinking we had an intruder, and then angry at the possibility of an intruder in my house. I hovered in the bedroom doorway, heart racing while John looked around, and I seriously considered going for the shotgun. I didn’t, though, because after a minute or so, John pointed and said, “Look.” I went into the kitchen to find my crockpot in the floor. The biggest crockpot. The heaviest one I own, with the removable stoneware insert. The one that stays on top of the refrigerator. Totally confused! How on earth could something that heavy just fall from that high up... OH, WAIT. The cat came in after dinner. Did he knock it off? Was he strong enough to knock it off? He’d have had to push on it pretty hard to get it to fall off. Why would he be on top of the refrigerator? Where WAS he, anyway?

The effects of my allergy pill magically disappeared.

I turned to check on the kids when we heard another noise. Still haven’t figured out what that noise was. I think it was probably the dogs moving around on the porch when they heard us. We looked all around the house and checked on the kids, who had all slept through everything – the CRASH, Daddy yelling and hitting the wall, Mommy yelling, and the general commotion. They hadn’t budged.

I found the cat, curled up in one of the dining room chairs, looking like he’d been there all night. He seemed annoyed when I picked him up to check if he’d been hurt.

All the windows were closed. The doors were locked. We knew we’d checked everywhere earlier when we realized the window screen was gone. The only logical conclusion is that the cat was on top of the refrigerator and knocked the crockpot off into the floor.

My crockpot is broken. One whole end was crushed in around the handle, the lid was broken in the fall, and it’s not usable any more. (Also, there might be a hand-sized hole in my bedroom wall right above the light switch.) It’s good to know, though, that in a fight-or-flight situation, the fight instinct kicked in for both of us. If someone HAD been trying to break in, they wouldn’t have gotten very far! I really think we were both ready to body slam anyone who dared enter our home without our permission. On the downside, though, if one of the kids ever decides to be sneaky in the middle of the night and accidentally makes noise, their Daddy and I will probably scare them so bad they’ll pee on themselves.

My Little Mud Bugs

After it rains, our yard is a veritable swamp, so the kids like to play outside and get nice and muddy. Last night before dinner, they got out the waterhose and put soap and water in their (empty) sandbox and had a fabulous time!

I guess at least it cleaned some of the mud off of them, right?
Poor girl... her shorts were so wet that they kept falling down.

Here's a close-up of my sweet delicate flower:

Do you know how long it took me to comb those dried mud snarls out of her hair? There was much wailing and gnashing of teeth in the little bathroom last night.

I told the dogs to "SIT" and this one actually sat down and raised a paw to shake hands. He laid down as soon as I raised the camera, though. The other dog was being too spastic to have his photo taken, so I cropped him out.

Here's our lazy cat. I walked in the house and found him meowing his head off, but with no effort to get up and move anywhere to find someone to annoy. I couldn't quit laughing when I uploaded this one. Doesn't this just cry out for a LOLcat caption? :)

Weekend Adventures

Well, I figured it was about time for another post, so here you go.

Big Brother played in another baseball game on Saturday morning. His team didn't win, but they have been improving a lot, and had a lot of fun. They played the other team from their school, so they were playing their friends' team. The uniforms of both teams look exactly alike, so I was constantly confused as to which team was up to bat. Haha! During the game, the Princess and her best friend got manicures. Her friend brought a purse full of little nail polishes and lipsticks and painted the Princess' nails purple. I was nagged until I agreed to have a green sparkly polish job, but then they made me do it myself, and I had to wear a huge purple plastic ring with lip gloss in it on my pinky finger for the duration of the game. Unfortunately, the polish was the 20-minute kind that peels off almost as soon as it's dry, so my fancy manicure only lasted until I put my hands in my pockets. I was quite disappointed, and didn't get a photo of it. Later, I promised the Princess I would go buy her some nail polish that wouldn't rub off immediately. More on that later...

Here's Big Brother in his uniform, posing in the bluebonnets in our front yard:

Later in the day on Saturday, we headed out to the lake, where SuperDad's friends were camping (his friend Brian keeps a camper at the lake), and the kids had a blast playing in the dirt and getting absolutely filthy. Here is the Tiny Man, the Princess, and Brian's 5-year-old son:

Here is the Princess, demonstrating why it's not a good idea to pick up a handful of dirt and let it drop when you are downwind from the falling dirt. Evidently, the dirt didn't taste very nice:
SuperDad and Big Brother played a game of catch:

The Princess drew her favorite shape in the dirt and I managed to get a photo of it before the boys' cars drove right over it:

Brian was on his way to put this pig in the smoker, and I said "Say cheese!" SuperDad kept asking when the dog was going to be finished cooking. LOL! It does look like a small dog, doesn't it? It was really a pig, I promise! Oh, and EW.

We didn't get to stay long enough to have some smoked dog, er, I mean, pig. We left about the time the sun went down and stopped by my parents' house to visit and pick up Big Brother's library book he left there two weeks ago. (I told him not to take it, but did he listen?)

On Sunday, I had to go grocery shopping, so I picked up a multi-pack of tiny nail polish bottles for the Princess. She had blue, pink, green, yellow, purple, and orange to choose from, and we painted her toenails purple. Her fingernails are hot pink. She insisted that I take a photo of her fancy pedicure, and wanted mine in the photo, too, so here you go:

Life is busy around here, as usual. We're working on getting the oven fixed and operating again. Long story short, living out in the country = you're going to have mice. I'll spare you the details, and just say that we had to replace the insulation in the oven. While we have it all cleaned up and taken apart, SuperDad is mouse-proofing it, so hopefully, we won't have this problem any more. (And yes, I hear you muttering something about mouse traps and getting a cat... we have done both, and still, there is a mouse problem. See previous statement RE: living out in the country.) So in the meantime, we've been having dinner out of the microwave and/or electric skillet. My dryer is still making a terrible noise, and we think it's either the motor or the bands around the drum that are causing it, so that is next on the list. After that, we'll be taking the dishwasher out so I can clean out from underneath it and behind it, and SuperDad can mouse-proof the opening in front of it a little better (close up the gap between the wall and the dishwasher so they can't get underneath it/behind it). This will keep the mice out of the cabinet under the kitchen sink, too, which I cleaned out yesterday. Ugh. Slowly but surely, we're getting all this repaired and fixed. It just takes time, and in most cases, money. Both of which can be in short supply around here. Especially since SuperDad has been working overtime lately. But that looks like it's winding down (we hope!), and school will be out soon, so that will be nice. I know the kids are looking forward to summer already!

Bad case of lazy...

Okay, so I know it's been weeks since my last post, and the ones before that one were sporadic at best. I have no excuse other than I haven't felt like writing anything. Lazy might be the appropriate word here. So I'm going with list form again. Here we go...

A. Like I mentioned in my last listy-type post, Big Brother has started baseball again. They played two games in a pre-season tournament two weekends ago and had their first actual game tonight. We're exhausted - him from playing, and me from watching and cheering. I try not to yell too much (bad memories from 6th grade softball - thanks, Mom) (oh, I'm kidding) (sort of), but he did so well that I couldn't help myself. He hit the ball every time he was up to bat and made it all the way home twice, sliding once and everything! It was awesome! They didn't win, but the whole team played really well and there were lots of proud moms in the stands near where I was sitting.

B. Yes, I took a photo of Big Brother in his uniform. But no, I haven't uploaded it yet. It's still living on my camera's memory card at the moment, along with every photo I've taken since the Princess' birthday party. I'll get around to uploading them eventually. Maybe I'll even go crazy and post one! Woo!

C. My youngest child is going to be starting Kindergarten this fall. I'm not quite sure how I feel about that yet, but rest assured I'll make a point to let you all know when I do. He turns five in June. How did that happen? Yesterday, he was this clingy little blonde-headed thing who couldn't form the letter "L" to save his wittwe wife, and now he's a bit less clingy, and can correctly pronounce the word "clingy" with no trouble. And makes the most awesome sound effects I've ever heard in my life. Seriously, you should hear his helicopter sounds. There might have to be a video involved here somewhere.

D. I'm all set to go back to school this fall when the Tiny Man starts school. I'll be taking two classes online and two on-campus classes two days a week. I am quite nervous, actually. I haven't taken a full course load since I was pregnant with my first child. But on the bright side, at least this time, I won't have an 8 AM class three days a week to compete with debilitating morning sickness, right? I was blessed with very understanding professors that semester. They didn't even flinch when I had to "suddenly exit" the room. So anyway, I'm still waiting on Financial Aid to come through and then I'll know how much they'll cover. I'm hoping for 100%, but waiting anxiously until they let me know.

E. Have I ever told you how much I heart Half-Price Books? Well, I double heart them. Someone who reads as much as I do really needs access to a Half-Price Books nearby. Since the beginning of the year, I've read a little over a dozen books (that's roughly one a week, if you're counting), and they've all come from a Half-Price Books store. SuperDad likes to stop by there after work and surprise me sometimes with a handful of books. I think I'll keep him!! And in case you were wondering, I just finished "All Quiet on the Western Front" (really liked it! Didn't think I would!) and am about a third of the way through "The Three Musketeers." I think Alexandre Dumas might be one of my favorite writers. After Jane Austen, of course (because hello, it's Jane Austen, and have you read "Sense and Sensibility?"). I loved "The Count of Monte Cristo" so much that I bought myself a copy just so I can read it again (read it the first time via DailyLit, which I also heart very much except when I couldn't get all that interested in Moby Dick and it took me forever to see the "suspend delivery" button in every single email because I have these amazing powers of observation, but I digress). Next up after "The Three Musketeers" is "The Man in the Iron Mask." I'm a little scared of this one because I've seen the movie. I hate seeing the movie first and then reading the book because literary film adaptations are never completely faithful to the book. Like "Eragon," for example - I read the book before seeing the movie, so I knew that the movie was a terrible adaptation. I know that people who don't read wouldn't care nor would they know the difference, but I like to know how the original story is supposed to go before I watch it on the silver screen. I'm quirky that way, I guess. Books trump movies. Period. (Hi, I'm Stacey and I'm an English major. That's how we roll.) (I'm also a big dork. Don't be so surprised.)

F. Speaking of movies... Why can no one make a "scary movie" that is actually scary? I have become disenfranchised with the whole horror/scary movie genre. Story lines take all sorts of stupid twists and turns, people Scooby their groups, they all sleep at the same time like dummies, they go out at night, girls wear heels and skimpy clothing when they should be wearing running shoes or combat boots and body armor. Stupid non-scary movies. I don't heart you. Not one bit, especially with your random gratuitous violence and completely unnecessary nudity and foul language. SuperDad and I agree that the way to get a truly scary screenplay written is to let a group of role-playing gamers write it. Gamers know how things should work. That would be one kick-butt horror movie. Maybe I'll write my own. Hmm.

G. I wasn't just hearing things with my dryer. It's currently sitting in the middle of the kitchen floor, begging for some attention. I better not have to get a new one!

H. FedEx CANNOT find my house. Ever. I always track my shipments, and they always say "Delivery exception - customer not available." Hello! I've been home ALL STINKIN' DAY and they never showed up. I wonder if they would be offended if I asked them to hand it off to UPS?

I. It's allergy season. Yay. And that's all I'm going to say about that because I am now going to go take an allergy pill and go lay in my bed and read until I fall asleep. Good night, all!

Some catching up to do...

Well, I’ve been out of the blog loop for a while now, except for a few pop-in type posts. Spring has sprung, and we’re all pretty much healthy again (for the most part), but I just can’t seem to sit down and compose a coherent post lately. So I’m resorting to my old stand-by: list form. I love list form.

Number One: I have developed spring fever and feel the need for a change. On my desktop wallpaper. Yeah. So it’s no surprise that I’ve spent the last few days perusing all the desktop wallpaper links I found at How About Orange. This wallpaper by Shanon Gass is what I have on my desktop right now. I love it!

Number Two: Baseball has started up again for Big Brother, so we’ve been going to practice twice a week. His team is gearing up for a tournament next weekend!

Number Three: My dryer started making a funny noise a few days ago. We (and when I say “we,” I mean SuperDad) pulled it out and opened it up. Can’t see anything obviously wrong, so maybe I was just hearing things. It wouldn’t be the first time.

Number Four: The Princess had a fabulous time at her birthday party, and you can see the photos here.

Number Five: We totally enjoyed our Spring Break last week! The kids got to go spend the night at Grandma and Grampa’s house one night and they haven’t stopped talking about it yet. SuperDad took Thursday and Friday off from work and we all spent four days just hanging out and doing stuff as a family. We took the kids out to eat (Applebee’s – the Princess’ choice) and to the movies on Thursday (we saw - and loved - “Race to Witch Mountain”). Friday, we went truck-shopping (for something to haul things in around here), but didn’t find anything we liked that we could afford, so we’re still looking. Saturday, we spent the day with Uncle Jim and Aunt Ruth, and on Sunday, the kids and I went to my parents’ house for dinner because my sister and her boys were in town for a few days. I’ll be uploading photos from Sunday night on my Picasa page soon, too.

Number Six: I now have tons of laundry to get caught up on, and some Pilates calling my name, so thus ends the list form.

Six years ago today...

Six years ago today, I was quite busy. Growing a family is hard work, people! So to spare you the details, let's just say that after lots of sweating and medication and umm, other stuff, my second child, my little girl, was born:

Here she is, three days later:

And again at two weeks:

And pictured below is that same little girl, who walks and talks and runs and sasses me and loves to color and can be totally sweet one minute and totally rotten the next and is one of the smartest kids in her Kindergarten class. Since her party isn't until Saturday, I ran to town today and got her a rose in a super cool purple vase and a balloon and delivered them to school.

She had a special birthday breakfast this morning - chocolate glazed donuts - and requested her favorite food, taco salad, for dinner tonight. I took her with me to the store last night and let her pick out a special dessert to have tonight after dinner. She picked this purple monstrosity:

Yes, people, that is an oversized Hannah Montana cupcake with purple frosting and sprinkles. That's enough sugar to keep her going until she turns 7 next year.

Hey, look! I finished a project I started!

Hey, remember when I repurposed this broken chair into a stool? Here's a photo of it:
Last week, I finally got around to finishing the other two! Here's a photo of the first one. I love this hot pink color and I think the flowers are neat. I have no idea what kind of flowers they are. I just painted something that I liked. So here you go:

And here's the second one. I love this Jane Austen quote because it pretty much sums up my feelings exactly. I'm a homebody and would much rather sit around and be at home with my family than out doing stuff. So I decided to use the quote on this stool. I was afraid to ruin it with my first attempt at sunflowers, but they came out halfway decent, so I slapped some varnish on and called it a day!

Here they all are, lined up and ready to be put to use: